Horn finishing

[Shadow Hawk]

got a question for everyone that builds horns.
 how do you finish a powder horn. IE. varnish,selac, natural?
 i am just finishing my first horn and i need ideas. i am not going to scrim it. its just a basic horn. ill post pics when i get some took.

[Bigsmoke]

Some horns get polished on a high speed buffer with 600 grit white polish.
Others get antiqued and then I apply a coat of floor wax.
I have always thought that varnish or shelac on a horn looked a bit cheesy.

[BEAVERMAN]

looks alot cheesy INHO, when your horns done to the point you want it, just give it a coat of good old Johnsons pate wax to seal it unless it's a buffalo horn, thats a whole diff process

[Gambia]

Cheesy Hu?
well, I use clear shellac, one coat, wiped on sort of thin, when it dries I take some 0000 steel wool and LIGHTY wipe over it till the "cheesy" shine is taken off. But be warned, it does not take much to get down below the shellac and take off the stain. After that I do my antiqueing.
Tell me if you think they look bad, I may need to change my way of doing horns.
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[hornbuilder]

Fellow forum members : for all of you that have the opportunity PLEASE check out the Jan/Feb. issue of Pennsylvania Magazine under the heading of " Horned for Beauty " you will see a very nicely done article on our own fellow TMA member  " GRIZ " ...... for those of you who Know Tim .....Ahhhh I mean Griz , know that according to him he only builds Crap.... and he always makes a point of never showing off his fine craftsmanship...  

Now fellow forum members " Please " protect me cause as soon as Mr. Griz reads this he's gonna want to hurt me !

Tim's a great guy with an awesome talent ! and a fellow I call " friend "

[pathfinder]

I've seen horns with a varnish or shellac finish done the wrong way and they are VERY cheesy. Griz does it the proper way. What makes it cheesy is too much of anything,I've seen it in the furniture biz for years,if a little is good, a lot is better. And now that I live so close to Wiconsin,I should like "cheesy"!

[BEAVERMAN]

I retract my original statement, I've seen some really cheesy looking horns that were shellaced, varnished and or urethaned, if Tim's er Griz's horns are shellaced, there the first I've seen that were done well, I bow to the master!

[Gambia]

Beav, you are forgiven and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Horn builder...... when you least expect it....I will be behind you

[Bigsmoke]

OK, so may I ammend my original statement to read "can look cheesy"
However, when the "monger de merde" :peace is at work, that don't necessarilly apply.  It don't look cheesy at all.

[Shadow Hawk]

thanks guys for all your help. the only power tool i used was a dremal and a cordless drill. and i started from a raw rough horn.
here is how it turned out.

[rickevans]

Beaverman...I am using buffalo horn for several of my Fusil de Tulle long arms. No paste wax on a buffalo horn? How should I finish it?

[BEAVERMAN]

Rick, after having built a couple dozen Buff horns over the years and owning 3, I've experimented with finish, buffler has it's own characteristics, to me it's much more grainy, by that I mean the layers of hair are rougher and not as tightly compacted as cow horn, when it starts to dry out the top layer starts to turn an ashy grey (kinda like my hair) lol, and will eventually start to look like what you statred with if it was a raw horn, I've tried a sealer on it, slowed this process down, but still drys out, I've tried paste wax on, same results, the last one I made  for me, a year and a half ago I left unsealed and have just been keeping it moisturized with natural products and it looks like the day I finished it, I've been using lanolin, now I had an old time horner, Harold Moore tell me this, when oiling or conditioning anything natural use animal to animal, lanolin, bear grease, pig lard whatever, stay away from any petroleum or silicone products, so far it's been working for me, your mileage may vary!

[Gambia]

Neetsfoot oil

[melsdad]

Tim's a great guy with an awesome talent ! and a fellow I call " friend "

I could not agree with you more! I am glad you reminded me of the PA magazine. I need to get me a copy.

Tim's horns are from from "cheesy", and far from "crap" in my opinion. I do believe that if one doesn't know what they are doing with the finishing techniques they will get "cheesy" results. The final outcome is what sets the true talent apart from the rest.

[rickevans]

Thanks friends. BTW Shadow Hawk, very nice for your first horn! That one looks like it twists and turns every which way!